I have an idrive/iPod related problem. I hope the below makes sense and wondered if anyone has experienced this before and knows the fix?

I have a Year 2006 BMW with idrive and iPod connection. I have an iPod mini which dates back to the same year (2006) so is compatible. When I have the iPod connect all starts fine and as it should. BMW shows on the iPod screen and it starts to load the song, albums etc onto the idrive.

Letís now say for example I wanted to select a specific album beginning with the letter N. I go to the correct section and select album and then start to scroll down the list. Once I get to the bottom of the visible albums (from memory only five albums can be seen) I cannot scroll down any further and the wheel stops turning even thought I know there are more albums available. This happens also with songs, artist etc.

In any other part of the idrive I can scroll down any list no problem. This only happens when selecting some music from the iPod.

The iPod was fitted by BMW in 2007 under a previous owner and it has always done this as long as I have had the car. Does anyone know if a software updated would fix this? I might add I have yet to speak to BMW but my car has not been to a main dealer for around 2 years (I have a good indie).

The number is important as too many will result in something similar to what you are explaining. Originally I could not scroll past B in songs alphabetical order.

Sub folders or albums where the first to suffer for me.

I think 700 songs or thereabouts is the limit. This is not factual but guessing as its late and Im too lazy to check the manual.

Hope this is helpful.

Hi MV57 and thank you for the reply.

I think I have a different problem to what you have mentioned above. I had deleted all songs from my ipod and added 4 albums making around 50 songs a while ago to see if that helped. If I pick an album which has 12 songs I can only scroll through only the names visable which are on the screen. I can not go any further down the list to the names you can not see. Even moving the wheel backwards does not let me go through the list.

It has never worked during my ownership of the car and I think that might be the case that it never worked properly when BMW installed it.

If you select random does it only play the first 5 songs or will it recognise that there are more and play the other 7 from the album of 12. Does the right hand side steering wheel buttons allow you to scroll through?

Out of curiosity have you tried a different iPod to see if the problem remains?

Another note is about your media management? I have seen some itunes libraries where file formats are pretty random. The BMW manual does not confirm if all audio codecs works but mentions by name AAC, MP3 and Apples losses only. May be worth checking out.

Just to troubleshoot.

Firmware should be 1.4.1 or later for the mini.
You are accessing the albums on the idrive through cdc 3?
Do the songs that are not visible on the idrive work on a pc or mac? Could be interrupted downloads corrupting the files?

I have not tried selecting random but I will try that later but I can change songs though the buttons on the wheel and I can work my way down the list i.e. it does not stop and keeps showing the next song and will go right through an album. Thinking about it, the screen does recognise/show that there are more songs to play but the wheel just does not turn any further than the what you can see. (No idea if this makes sense!)

I think I might try a different ipod but fear the problem is not with the ipod as it plays the songs perfectly.

Iíll check the music file names but they should all be MP3 or whatever apples makes them when imported from the CD as being old school I still by CDís.

I will check the ipod for its firmware but it is the latest version. I do select CD and the go thought CD 1-6 depending on if it is songs, albums, artists, podcasts etc.

The more I think about your questions and the problems, the more I feel the idrive software is at faultÖ Idrive works perfectly everywhere else.

Does the controller stop rotating? Mine used to do this on the phonebook. If I forced the controller round a bit more it would scroll down but with feedback against it. Was weird but I just put up with it.

Does the controller stop rotating? Mine used to do this on the phonebook. If I forced the controller round a bit more it would scroll down but with feedback against it. Was weird but I just put up with it.

Hi Mart,

The phone book system works with no issues. I't is only the ipod. The function was added when the car was 1 year old so not a "factory fit" but done by BMW no the less.

Does the controller stop rotating? Mine used to do this on the phonebook. If I forced the controller round a bit more it would scroll down but with feedback against it. Was weird but I just put up with it.

+1

Mine does exactly the same thing, with songs as well. I was told by BMW this is normal and nothing can be done about it. The resistance on the controller is controlled by a magnet apparently.

Have you tried forcing the controller past the last name/song available?